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Home Staging Certification CourseSun, 18 Feb 2018 23:26:17 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.3http://schoolofhomestaging.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/cropped-dalia-2677514_1920-e1506035563587-32x32.jpgSchool of Home Staginghttp://schoolofhomestaging.com
3232Virtual Home Staginghttp://schoolofhomestaging.com/virtual-home-staging/
Wed, 31 Jan 2018 03:28:41 +0000http://schoolofhomestaging.com/?p=480I’ve been hearing about virtual home staging almost as long as I’ve been in the business as a home staging instructor. That covers a lot of years, and as you might expect, the concept of virtual home staging has become more accepted, and the results have gotten much nicer. It used to be you’d see …

]]>I’ve been hearing about virtual home staging almost as long as I’ve been in the business as a home staging instructor. That covers a lot of years, and as you might expect, the concept of virtual home staging has become more accepted, and the results have gotten much nicer. It used to be you’d see these somewhat awkward looking photos of virtually staged rooms that, to me, were a little distracting. But that’s not the case anymore.

What is Virtual Home Staging?

Basically, virtually home staging is home staging done on the computer rather than in the actual room. When actual staging would be cost prohibitive, virtual home staging is a very good alternative.

Buyers are looking at homes online before they ever get into the car and drive around. It used to be that you didn’t want the listing to be a “drive by” — a home that lacks curb appeal and just doesn’t entice buyers to even stop and get out of the car. Now, drive bys still happen but we also see the click-by phenomenon, for lack of better word. this means you have buyers looking at home after home online, they start clicking through photos and when they aren’t impressed with your home’s online photos then they probably won’t visit in person.

Lots of things can cause the buyers to keep on clicking and move on to other, more appealing homes. Sometimes it’s poor photo quality. Sometimes it’s something that really can’t be addresses with any kind of staging such as having small, dark rooms, when they (like most buyers) are looking for something airy and open.

Other times, buyers click on by just because the home is vacant and the photos of empty rooms just don’t look enticing. Ideally, a home would be staged “IRL” as the kids say (in real life), but if that isn’t possible, virtual staging can help get buyers interested.

Vacant rooms just don’t look that good in person or in photos, but especially in photos. Naked rooms are just, well, not that interesting. They also reveal the home’s weaknesses without giving the rooms any of the benefits of being dressed up with color and coziness. Yes, buyers will still see the home in all its vacant glory when they visit. But when they’re in the space, it’s easier to imagine what they could do with it.

Virtual home staging can turn plain, stark rooms into spaces where people actually want to be. It can show the home in its best light, and give buyers ideas about the possibilities. When you compare the prices of virtual staging to actual home staging, you’re looking at maybe a quarter of the price or less.

Don’t discount the power of good photos. I once sold a house in Portland, Oregon to a couple from Flagstaff, Arizona soley based on photos. (The listing photos as well as some additional photos that their agent took.)

]]>7 Reasons to Start a Home Staging Businesshttp://schoolofhomestaging.com/7-reasons-start-home-staging-business/
Mon, 29 Jan 2018 02:11:03 +0000http://schoolofhomestaging.com/?p=183Home staging is a great business to start if you’re interested in home decorating, design, and real estate. If you have artistic/visual/design-related skills and a knack for making things look good, it could be the perfect business. It’s also a business that pays well. If you’ve been thinking about starting a home staging business, read …

]]>Home staging is a great business to start if you’re interested in home decorating, design, and real estate. If you have artistic/visual/design-related skills and a knack for making things look good, it could be the perfect business. It’s also a business that pays well. If you’ve been thinking about starting a home staging business, read on…

Here are 7 reasons to start a home staging business:

You can earn a good living

Home staging pays well. You can make anywhere between $50-$150 per hour. Keep in mind that not all of your work time will be billable hours, but the rates are definitely sustainable if you want to earn good money.

2. It’s fulfilling work

When you stage a home for sale, you’re helping someone. Because of your skills, those home sellers can walk away with extra money in their pocket. You’ve helped someone.

3. You get to use your creativity

One of the best things about being a home stager is the fact that you get to tap into your creative side every day. If you’ve never had a job before that allows you to use your creativity, you’ll be amazed at how just this one aspect of home staging can give you joy on a daily basis.

4. It’s pretty easy to become a home stager

You don’t have to go to school for years to be able to start a home staging business. As someone who has been involved in home staging training since 2005, I know that there are plenty of routes you can take to get into the business. You can be entirely self-taught, you can go to in person training sessions, you can take an online program, or you can find some combination of methods that works the best for you. You don’t need a home staging certification, although many new stagers find that it helps. A lot of programs try to convince you that you need a special certification or credential of some kind but that simply isn’t the case.

5. Set your hours

Home stagers often work weekends and evenings, but aside from that aspect, you’ll have control over your schedule. How early do you want to have to be somewhere? You can decide. How many days do you want to work per week? You can decide. When do you want to take your vacation? It’s up to you. Want to have afternoons free so you’re home when school get out? Just set it up that way. It’s your business.

6. Spend your work day around things you love

Do you love real estate? How about pretty rooms, home decorating stuff, flowers, throw pillows… That’s your work day.

7. You don’t need a lot of money to start

Home staging is a business you can start without a big budget. A lot of the marketing channels you have available are free or low-cost. You don’t need to invest in furniture and accessories in order to start. You can always build up your inventory over time once you’re up and running.

]]>Home Staging Interior Design Principleshttp://schoolofhomestaging.com/home-staging-interior-design-principles/
Wed, 24 Jan 2018 15:51:40 +0000http://schoolofhomestaging.com/?p=3466 Interior design principles you need to know for staging homes Let’s go over some of the important information you should be familiar with when it comes to interior design. This is going to be a quick overview that will give you a good basis for understanding how to make good decorating and design choices …

Let’s go over some of the important information you should be familiar with when it comes to interior design. This is going to be a quick overview that will give you a good basis for understanding how to make good decorating and design choices in your home staging projects.

My personal belief is that if you’re interested in home staging, you probably already have a knack for it and understand good decorating in an instinctual way.

My dozen or so years as an instructor has shown this to be true time and time again. I’ve never had a student turn in bad work. And in many cases, the student turns in work that looks like it could be in a magazine. This is just because people who are drawn to home staging are drawn to it because it taps into their natural abilities.

Even if you are a Realtor interested in becoming certified, I would feel confident in saying that you probably already have a knack for putting a room together. And Realtors look at so many homes that you can’t help but develop a good eye after a while.

Having said all that, let’s get into some interior design principles.

Balance

Balance in interior design refers to the idea of using the visual weight of objects in a room to create visual balance. Balance is one of the ways you can give the room a sense of things just looking right. Sometimes when things feel off, something isn’t quite right and you’re not sure why, it’s probably balance.

You will most commonly use symmetrical balance and asymmetrical balance. When using asymmetrical balance, it’s all about using unlike objects that have the same visual weight.

Unity

Unity is a way to give a home a sense of flow and harmony throughout each room. This isn’t something you’ll have total control of as a home stager, since you’re going to be working with a lot of design choices that have already been made.

Color is one of the ways a home can have a sense of unity. If one room is painted hot pink and every other room is done in earthy neutrals, that’s going to be shocking space to walk into. If all of the rooms are painted in bold colors then the hot pink makes a lot more sense. As a home stager you might not be painting every room. But if you keep unity in mind, you might be able to make and jarring transitions a bit more subtle.

In this example, you might be able to lessen the shock of the hot pink by adding some bold punches of color in other rooms. Or in the hot pink room, you might be able to calm it down with some neutrals in other elements like artwork, bedding, rugs, etc. And of course they could always paint the room! You can use unity as a reason, instead of having the homeowner think you are questioning their taste.

Rhythm

Humans like visual rhythm. It helps the eye move around a space and creates some visual interest.

Two ways you can use rhythm are with color and with what we call progression, which is basically a series of identical or similar objects that range in size. Emerald green throw pillows and an emerald green vase on the mantle would be an example of using color to create rhythm. An arrangement of small white, blue-green, and orange pumpkins creates rhythm through progression.

Use rhythm in small doses.

Scale & Proportion

This principle is exactly what it sounds like. It’s about putting the right size pieces together, and making sure your furniture is the right size for the room. Make sure the coffee table looks like it’s the right size for the sofa. Don’t put a tiny table in a family-sized dining area. It isn’t difficult to discern problems with scale and proportion, and it comes down to common sense in most cases.

Contrast

Contrast is another way to add some visual interest to a space. You can use color, form, and space to create contrast. When you put contrasting items together, what you’re doing is highlighting the differences between them, which in turn enhances each one and makes them look better.

Use contrast in small doses or the space can become too busy.

Emphasis

Emphasis is about choosing a particular focal point for a room. You can use design elements to draw attention to an area like a fireplace, giving the room a focal point, and in the case of staging, emphasizing a desirable feature at the same time.

]]>Home Staging Tips for Locationhttp://schoolofhomestaging.com/home-staging-tips-1/
Wed, 24 Jan 2018 12:49:48 +0000http://schoolofhomestaging.com/?p=344Home staging tips to maximize location Home stagers can’t do much about location except try to minimize the negative and accentuate the positive. Be sure to accentuate a great view by keeping windows open and bringing the outside in. If necessary, trim branches away from windows to open up the view while also adding more …

Home stagers can’t do much about location except try to minimize the negative and accentuate the positive.

Be sure to accentuate a great view by keeping windows open and bringing the outside in. If necessary, trim branches away from windows to open up the view while also adding more light.

If you have the opposite problem and there’s a bad view you want to minimize, wood blinds or a bamboo roll-up shade can filter or block the view while allowing some daylight into the space. Depending on the situation, a less than desirable view can also be screened a bit with some healthy indoor plants placed strategically.

Accentuate a nice back yard by making sure there’s a seating area to enjoy the setting. Even if buyers don’t stop and sit, a bench can trigger thoughts of sitting in such a beautiful spot with a cup of coffee. We want buyer’s minds to create these images so they feel connected.

If there’s an undesirable view from the porch or deck, think about ways to downplay the view with trellised planter boxes to grow vines, bamboo screening, or even a weatherproof room divider.

When you have a home that’s in a very quiet area, or if there’s nearby water that you can hear, open a window to show off how pleasant and peaceful it is. If there’s a noise issue such as being located near a freeway, use wind chimes or a fountain feature to take some of the focus off of it.

When the property has features like rose gardens, fruit trees, or a hobby vineyard, bring some of the outside in. Depending on the season, you can place apples, lavender, or roses from the yard around the house in different spots. These are not only decorative — they also get buyers to think about how nice it will be to spend a leisurely morning cutting roses.

]]>Home Staging Vignetteshttp://schoolofhomestaging.com/home-staging-vignettes/
Wed, 24 Jan 2018 01:07:55 +0000http://schoolofhomestaging.com/?p=339Vignettes for home staging Vignettes are fun little arrangements you can use for home staging to help activate the buyer’s imagination. Here are a few examples: A teapot and tea cup arranged on a tray on the bed with a newspaper or a novel. Add a bud vase with a pretty bloom. Here’s an outdoor …

Vignettes are fun little arrangements you can use for home staging to help activate the buyer’s imagination.

Here are a few examples:

A teapot and tea cup arranged on a tray on the bed with a newspaper or a novel. Add a bud vase with a pretty bloom.

Here’s an outdoor vignette idea to draw attention to a large deck with a lovely view. Set up a patio dining set under a pretty umbrella. Put together a festive-looking setting for the table, with colorful dishes and napkins. Add an arrangement of flowers from the garden.

A pitcher and a bowl of lemons set up on the kitchen counter as if you’re getting ready to make lemonade. I love this idea especially when there’s a lemon tree in the yard.

A dining room set up with a centerpiece and pretty place settings as if a fun dinner party is about to happen. I always like to add flowers and/or greenery from the property in a centerpiece arrangement. It just helps fill the buyer’s mind with the nice little details of living in the home.

The key to using vignettes is not to go overboard. It’s nice to have a scene like this to help get buyers to think about day to day enjoyment of the home. It’s just a way to get buyers to take that extra step from “Oh nice deck” to “Wouldn’t it be a great place to entertain! Look at the view, what a great place to spend an evening with friends and family.”

Make sure you use color to draw the eye to your vignette.

Exercise:

Think about one vignette that would help accentuate one of your home’s best features. Set it up physically, if you can, or go over it in detail in your mind.

]]>Home Staging Stylehttp://schoolofhomestaging.com/home-staging-course-style/
Tue, 23 Jan 2018 11:52:40 +0000http://schoolofhomestaging.com/?p=336Let’s go over some key decorating points to keep in mind for home staging. Buyers want lots of space in a home. They want rooms that feel open and airy. Go through the home and find all of the ways you can create a spacious, open feeling. We already talked about removing clutter and excess …

]]>Let’s go over some key decorating points to keep in mind for home staging.

Buyers want lots of space in a home. They want rooms that feel open and airy. Go through the home and find all of the ways you can create a spacious, open feeling. We already talked about removing clutter and excess furniture so let’s talk about other things you can do.

Closets are important areas where you should create space. Closets are a huge deal, and nobody wants a closet that’s going to be a challenge due to its size. While you can’t do anything about the size of the closet, you can make them feel as spacious as possible. You can do this by having the sellers organize and thin out their wardrobe. Seasonal items that aren’t needed can be packed and stored in preparation for moving. Encourage sellers to find ways to make more closet space through organizing, storing, or possibly even donating stuff.

Cabinet space is also important and buyers may peek in to make sure they seem roomy. Make sure all storage areas look like they are sufficient by avoiding an overstuffed, unorganized look. Aside from the space issue, any kind of disarray is undesirable in staging. Buyers will want to check to make sure the home meets their needs right down to whether it has enough cabinet space or not.

When you have a very large living area with undefined spaces, it may make the room seem more functional if you separate the spaces by using different paint colors, such as an end wall painted in an accent color. You can accomplish the same separation with area rugs. Having two well-defined areas can actually make a large random-feeling room seem larger and more useful.

Make sure you keep the window treatments nice and light as much as possible, so that you can bring the outside in and add light and an airy, open feel.

Large mirrors can help create space, especially when they are positioned so that they pick up reflections of daylight coming in through a window.

I like using landscape photography as wall art because it’s not going to put people off, and it also adds a sense of space to the room.

As far as decorating style when it comes to home staging, stick with a tasteful and up to date style that isn’t too taste-specific. I often refer to Pottery Barn style as an ideal for appealing décor that appeals to a wide range of people. Classic, yet current. I’m definitely not saying that your items have to be from Pottery Barn. I’m a big fan of Wayfair, IKEA, CrateandBarrel.com clearance, Wisteria sale and clearance, and places like Ross for accessories. Be sure to mix in accents in trendy prints or colors. You can liven up a blah sofa with fresh throw pillows. If mismatched furniture is an issue and you’re not able to swap for new pieces due to budget or time constraints, slipcovers might be an option.

When you arrange furniture in a room, be sure to keep things balanced. There is no set rule that will apply in every situation, but when there is an imbalance, you’ll be able to see it and correct it. Trust yourself when you think something isn’t quite right. When in doubt, less is usually more.

Lighten and brighten areas that are too dark by using light natural paint colors. You’ll create an open feel while maintaining warmth when you stick with shades like straw, cream, and linen.

Mix in natural textures by using baskets and tactile fabrics. Add shiny items like candlesticks or vases for contrast.

Finally, make sure each room has a distinct purpose when you stage. A bedroom used as a sewing room or office is OK (bedrooms used as bedrooms is the ideal way to stage) but when a room looks like a craft room/guest room/workout area, it starts to be less attractive. You want each room to make an impression.

A dining room that’s also a shipping area for a home business is going to be less appealing than a dining room that just looks like a beautiful dining room. Yes, it is possible to see past some of the current uses for spaces, but it really helps buyers see the home’s potential more clearly when we keep things clearly defined.

Exercises

Find a room in your house that you can stage. Practice with hands-on activities like rearranging items, placing throw pillows, or making the bed as attractively as possible. You don’t have to physically make every change that would be helpful, but go through the steps in your mind. Think about the paint color, the artwork, and the personal items that would need to be removed. Get some practice in styling by rearranging and editing objects on tables, night stands, or dressers.

Go through some real estate listings online. Do a search for starter homes in your area and go over the photos of each room. Look at the rooms the way buyers will. Make a list of all of the changes you would make, including anything you think would be reasonable to do for staging such as painting or changing light fixtures. Be sure to make notes about the homes best features as well as features you want to de-emphasize.

]]>Using Color in Home Staginghttp://schoolofhomestaging.com/home-staging-color/
Tue, 23 Jan 2018 04:35:27 +0000http://schoolofhomestaging.com/?p=333Color tips for home staging Humans are extremely responsive to color. We have direct physical and psychological responses to color, so when you’re staging a home, you need to understand these principles. There are plenty of books on this topic and we could go into great detail here, but I want to give you the …

Humans are extremely responsive to color. We have direct physical and psychological responses to color, so when you’re staging a home, you need to understand these principles. There are plenty of books on this topic and we could go into great detail here, but I want to give you the most important points that will be useful to you in your everyday home staging projects.

Generally speaking, warm colors (pink, red, orange, yellow, and yellow-green) are associated with energy, excitement, activity, and sometimes happiness and love. These colors can convey a physical sense of warmth.

There are variances within each hue such as cooler oranges and warmer blues, but the primary hues will fall into the category of warm or cool. Greens and violets can definitely vary quite a bit in terms of being warmer or cooler. Grays can be quite warm but generally they are classified as cool. Brown and beige shades fall into the warm category.

Make sure you stick with very light shades when you’re choosing room colors for home staging, since a color can look a lot darker on the walls than you thought it was when you looked at the paint chip. This is due to the changes in how we perceive the color in a large area like an entire room. It just looks different on the two-inch square that you see on the chip. So factor this in when you’re selecting colors and always err on the side of lighter rather than darker. An exception would be when you’re really trying to make a room look smaller, but this isn’t usually the case.

Let’s talk more about specific colors and how you can use them in your staging.

Green

Green is associated with nature and it makes us feel calm. Strong green shades like grass green or emerald should be used sparingly, as accents, and are especially appropriate for bedrooms due to their soothing effect. Pale, earthy greens like sage shades can be used for walls in any room. Keep wall colors light!

Red

Red is a high energy color, and as such, it is appropriate to use in smaller doses for staging. Areas like dining rooms where you want to encourage social interaction are great places to use red. I like using red in the more problem rooms such as a dated kitchen or bathroom where you really want to lead the eye away from trouble spots. When you use red in three small areas in a space, it helps move the eye around and can make the space seem more alive.

In a kitchen I might use a red teapot, a red (or partially red) throw rug in front of the sink, and a vase full of red flowers such as dahlias. The key to using red is to use it strategically to say “look here!” — be aware of the attention it will attract, and use it to achieve your staging goals. If I really want someone to focus on the beautiful fireplace, I might think about how I can use a pop of red to make sure it isn’t missed.

In bedrooms, red can lend a romantic vibe. This can be fine for staging, as long as you keep it from being over the top.

Yellow

Yellow is probably the color associated with happiness more than any other hue. It’s also very easy to overdo it with yellow, so it’s another one that I would suggest using strategically in smaller doses.

Yellow is definitely a go-to color when you want to add a sense of light to a space. It’s the color of the sun so we automatically make the association with daylight. I like using it subtly such as in a throw pillow, fresh flowers, or artwork. It’s great for cheering up a laundry area.

Orange

Orange works much like red and yellow but it can be trickier to use successfully. One reason is because orange isn’t high on most people’s list of favorite colors. I would definitely use prints that feature orange, and orange accents like a big bowl of oranges (especially if you’re lucky enough to have an orange tree on the property and you want to highlight it as one of the home’s nice features), flowers, candles, or throw pillows.

Blue

When you ask someone what their favorite color is, blue is the most common response. You can be pretty comfortable that when you’re using blue, people are much more likely to love it than dislike it. Strong blues are great where you want to give a cool, calm feeling, and are best used as accent colors. Pale blues are very pleasing to the eye and can be used in any room. In a bathroom, pale greens and blue-greens can convey a serene, spa-like feeling. Pale blue bedrooms look like a relaxing space for relaxing and resting.

White

White is a nice background where you can make your colors pop. Avoid using too much white, since it can come across as dull, cold, and lifeless. Use white in conjunction with color so that your spaces feel happy and alive. Warm whites are the best shades to go with — colors like antique white, cream, and into the light parchment and linen shades. White is popular for just about any room in the house, especially kitchens and bathrooms as they give you a fresh, clean look.

Tan

Natural shades are very pleasing and will impart a warm, satisfying feeling. Humans love natural materials. Use light tan shades for walls and make the space come to life with pops of color. Choose linen-colored throw pillows or bedding to convey a pleasing, tactile sense that will be very appealing to buyers. Even if they don’t actually touch anything, the look of natural materials is so enticing that it works psychologically. I’m not suggesting that you decorate with beige and khaki, but use these peaceful colors in conjunction with your accent colors to give the eye a pleasing balance of liveliness and comfort.

What are the best home staging colors?

Here’s some new data about color and home sales straight from Zillow:

Blue bathrooms in shades like powder blue and periwinkle can boost a home’s sale price by an average of more than $5,000.

Cool, natural shades are also desirable for bathrooms.

White bathrooms are not as desirable, with an average of $4,000 taken off the sale price.

]]>How to Stage a Homehttp://schoolofhomestaging.com/how-to-stage-home/
Mon, 22 Jan 2018 09:22:47 +0000http://schoolofhomestaging.com/?p=331Here is the general step-by-step process for how to stage a home. This is the process for working with occupied homes. More detailed instructions will follow — this is your basic outline for the staging process. If a home is vacant, some of these steps won’t apply. For a vacant home staging you’ll either be …

]]>Here is the general step-by-step process for how to stage a home. This is the process for working with occupied homes. More detailed instructions will follow — this is your basic outline for the staging process.

If a home is vacant, some of these steps won’t apply. For a vacant home staging you’ll either be bringing in rented furniture or pieces from your own inventory. You won’t have to worry about depersonalizing or dealing with clutter.

Remove extraneous furniture and deal with clutter. Edit and organize. Encourage sellers to pack items that aren’t needed while the home is listed for sale. I always like to tell sellers that staging is the first step in the moving process.

Do a thorough job and remove family photos, etc., as we discussed earlier. In addition, encourage sellers to paint over personalizations like names painted in kids’ bedrooms. I know it’s a little sad, and sellers may not be thrilled about the idea. But you want buyers to picture their own child in the room, and it can be a little bit of a mental obstacle when it says “Madison” in giant letters.

Make sure the home gets a thorough cleaning. Have the sellers hire a service to do a deep cleaning if they don’t want to do it. It will be worth the money.

If any painting is being done, make sure it is completed before you move forward.

Use your knowledge of home staging psychology to go over the home carefully. Make any changes you feel are necessary in order to create the kind of good vibes we’re after.

]]>How to Start a Home Staging Business in 2018http://schoolofhomestaging.com/start-home-staging-business-2018/
Sun, 21 Jan 2018 22:10:23 +0000http://schoolofhomestaging.com/?p=460Have you been thinking about starting a home staging business? Here’s a quick overview of how to start a home staging business in 2018. You often see home staging listed as one of the best businesses to start, and it’s been that way over a decade. There are good reasons why home staging is a …

]]>Have you been thinking about starting a home staging business? Here’s a quick overview of how to start a home staging business in 2018.

You often see home staging listed as one of the best businesses to start, and it’s been that way over a decade. There are good reasons why home staging is a perennial favorite.

First, it’s relatively easy to get into this business. You don’t need any specific degree, certification, or credential to become a home stager. You do need good training so that you can do excellent work for your clients. There are many home staging books that can teach you how to do it, and you can learn right here on our site, for free. Go to our home page and find the home staging course links to get started.

Home stagers can make very good money, and you can control how much you work and take time off when you want to. It’s fair to say that $50 per hour is attainable as a home stager, and you could even see earnings of $75 or $100 per hour as you progress.

Once you have the training and have developed your skills to the point where you can do professional-quality work, start marketing yourself as a home stager in your area.

Thanks to HGTV and other media exposure, more people know about home staging than ever before. In the past, part of your business strategy would have been to educate the market about the benefits of home staging, so that you can find people willing to pay for your service. It’s a lot easier to sell home staging now since s many people are already aware of the value you provide when you stage homes for clients.

In addition, social media gives you plenty of marketing outlets. You can use Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter, and more, which enable you to reach out and find a local audience, establish credibility, position yourself as an expert, and network with other professionals. You can do this for free, or you can run ad campaigns such as sponsored posts on Facebook and Instagram that won’t cost you a lost of money.

You also have a lot of good options for getting a great-looking website for not a lot of money, if you’re starting up on a budget. Platforms like WordPress, Squarespace, Wix, and Weebly give you a range of options for building your own site using ready-made templates.

Your website will be one of the main ways that clients find you. Put up examples of your best work and let people get to know you a bit through your “About” or bio page.

For more information on starting a home staging business, take our free course.

]]>Home Staging Tips: Depersonalizehttp://schoolofhomestaging.com/home-staging-tips-2/
Sun, 21 Jan 2018 03:17:40 +0000http://schoolofhomestaging.com/?p=319Depersonalize It One of the keys to effective home staging is depersonalization. Depersonalizing a home is an important step to take in home staging because it allows buyers to see themselves in the home. When you depersonalize, you turn the home into a blank slate where buyers can imagine spending their lives. Family photos, mementos, …

Depersonalizing a home is an important step to take in home staging because it allows buyers to see themselves in the home. When you depersonalize, you turn the home into a blank slate where buyers can imagine spending their lives.

Family photos, mementos, and other highly personal items can be a distraction and actually block a buyer’s mind from engaging with the home the way you want them to.

It’s easier to form a connection with a house and start thinking of it as a home when we have properly depersonalized it. Think of it as a way to create universal appeal.

This can be tough for sellers because, let’s face it, it’s a little sad to pack up family photos. Sellers may resist the idea because they’re attached to the home and the life they’ve been living there with their family.

The best thing to do is simply explain to sellers that staging is the first step in the moving process.

Packing up items during the depersonalization stage is something that will need to be done anyway.

We’ll get further into how to depersonalize, but the main items we’ll remove include photos, highly taste-specific artwork, religious items, and mementos.

Exercise:

This is going to seem like a random exercise but trust me, it will help hone your staging instincts for working with occupied homes. Walk around your home and try to view it with fresh eyes. Start at the entryway and tour the home as if you were a buyer.

See where your eyes rest as you view the home — objects on the coffee table, pictures on the wall, furniture placement, décor, and everyday life stuff like mail or books that may be in view.

Think about each item and whether it’s something that should stay or go if you’re staging.

I know we haven’t discussed the specific staging steps yet, but I want you to just go with your gut feeling. Just think about the psychology of staging.

This is just to practice starting to look at a home as a home stager. It’s kind of challenging to do this with your own home. Try to spend at least 15 minutes.